LOS ANGELES — Whitesnake front man David Coverdale had an important announcement to make: He’s quitting.

Actually, retiring is more like it. And in classy fashion.

“After 50 years-plus of an incredible journey with you, with Deep Purple, with Whitesnake, Jimmy Page, the last few years it’s been very evident to me that it’s time, really, for me to hang up my rock ‘n’ roll platform shoes and my skin-tight jeans,” the 74-year-old singer said while holding a highball glass, in a video posted Thursday on YouTube.

“And, as you can see,” he said, ruffling the chin-length gray hair that has replaced his well-known long locks, “we’ve taken care of the lion’s wig.”

After a few years with local bands in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, including a band that opened for Deep Purple, Coverdale stepped

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